The present invention relates, in general, to field emission devices, and more particularly, to a method of operating a field emission device.
In the past, the industry has utilized a variety of methods for operating displays that utilize field emission devices. During the assembly of a field emission device, the electron emitting elements or emitters often become contaminated. When power is applied, these contaminants react with the emitters and cause a decrease in operational efficiency. Also, when power is applied the emitters absorb gases that may be in the surrounding atmosphere thereby further lowering the emission efficiency.
One procedure directed toward minimizing the effect of such contaminants and gases is electron scrubbing. In the scrubbing procedure, electrons emitted by one emitter are attracted to a nearby emitter so that the attracted electrons scrub the nearby emitter thereby removing some of the contaminants. One problem with such a procedure is the requirement for operating the emitters at different voltages so that one emitter may emit electrons and the nearby emitter may attract the emitted electrons. In a normal operating mode, emitters are all operated at the same potential. Thus, extra electronics and interconnects are required to operate emitters at different potentials in order to perform the scrubbing procedure. This increases the complexity of a display utilizing the scrubbing procedure thereby increasing the cost of such a display.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a method of operating a field emission display that increases the emission efficiency of the field emission elements, that does not require additional interconnect or extra electronics, and that does not increase the cost of the display.